Dusk, king of the Nyxies sat as ever he did on his wood knot throne at the heart of the Hollow. His hair was long and black, like Slide's, but oily, his skin was the hue of a storm broke sea, grey-green and deep. He had his favorites gathered about him scantily clothed, or not clothed at all, a male Nyxie whose name I didn't know was currently in his lap giggling and slapping away Dusk's explorative caresses. It was known that becoming one of the king's favorites, or even catching his eye for an evening meant a respite from your nightly toils, though I'm sure they worked just as hard if not harder behind those closed chamber doors.
It was Airitie who approached the throne, clearing her throat when I failed to speak. "What is it?" Dusk snapped with annoyance, only played us half of his attention. It was then in the scanning glare of his eyes that I timidly recalled his Gift as even our King had one. When he was not mediating over the matters of a ruler or in the throws shut away in his bedroom he was kissing the venom into the lips of adders and other such creatures. Airitie who was much stronger than I, helped to hold me aloft before our leader whom I had only seen formally the twilight of my arrival.
"Nightshade has something to bring before your majesty!" she called out bowing respectfully.
Dusk's sharp green gaze flickered to me. "I, I've killed an owl." I began earning a scoff and a dismissive wave.
Finished with me the man went back to his quiet murmurations and teasing ways with his group of lovers, hands on the male seat, lips for tasting a female he'd called near. My mind wandered to wicked places and I found myself briefly curious with how he would like Airitie, though I damned myself for it immediately afterwards. She, however must have been thinkinging the same thing as she shifted her weight uncomfortably. Sex was a part of Nature, a part we embodied more readily than the Fairies, and as such it was part of our culture, sexuality a lax word, love was love and gender blind to us, but only Dusk was so lewd about it.
I shook my head clear of the thoughts before continuing. "There, there was a Fairy." I managed earning a scornful sigh as Dusk shoved his lovers away, earning pitiful whines from them as they pouted. Rising from his seat and walked down the dais steps he stopped to tower in front of me, my height scarcely able to reach his shoulders.
"And?" he asked, voice cold and clear eyes sharp and threatening.
"If he's not dead by now he's dying." I explained trembling, my own gaze falling until all I was able to observe were my own two feet. Dusk loomed over me for several minutes, standing uncomfortably close, before his hand came to rest on my cheek, thumb rubbing the space beneath my eye.
"That's a good thing, isn't it?" he questioned in a leading way, applying pressure, causing pain, and the vision in my left eye to darken. I was too afraid to move even as the darkness was cut my a myriad of shattered color, and I feared damage done to the orb. If I envied the Fairies one thing, it was their gentle leaders which is what made my doing so hard.
"It will remind them their place when they find the body come morning, won't it?" he went on tone cloying as his free hand found the gash. My chin quivered and tears began to rain down my face as I tried to figure out how to tell him even as he continued to play his painful games.
"The Fairy," I began with a sob. "It was Lord Milori." The hand on my face pulled away as he looked accusingly at me. I knew what this could mean for my people, their people, I knew this could mean war, and the burden of this knowledge clung to me like a savage weight upon my soul. I opened my mouth to ask the question that had sprung to mind, what was Lord Milori doing out of his winter domain, when Dusk's hand came crashing across my face. I stumbled, and nearly fell, dark and light spots dancing before both my eyes now, and the taste of blood on my tongue.
"You will return with your friend," the king instructed hotly, a finger jabbed in my direction. "And if there is a job to be finished, by all that dwells in night you will finish it!" Airitie was already pulling me away before I could think of anything to say in my own defense, before I knew it, we were racing out of log and back the way we'd come.
The flight to the scene of the indecent was a quiet one, my friend pausing me only once to dab at the blood on my lip, nothing to be done about the rest for the time being. When we reached the little clearing the owl, snow white, could be clearly seen. It was writhing on the ground wings flopping and splaying pitifully as it tried to right itself.
Death was a part of Nature, but as it was, it was still difficult to watch. Rot, who must have come after me to see that I wouldn't make trouble with Vira was standing just a short distance away watching with a type of helpless fascination. My blood ran cold when I realized that Lord Milori was no where to be seen.
"Rot, did you move the Fairy?" I called in a frantic shrill. He shook his head soberly, the delicate necklace the bird had been adorned with broken and in hand. He spared me a horrified look that told me he knew who's owl this was, and what I must have done.
"He couldn't have gotten far." Airitie whispered with urgency. We all knew of Lord Milori, the tragic tale of his love lost and wing broken, though a Fairy tale, it was a song readily sung in our halls, low and mournful. Nodding I steeled my nerves and concentrated, willing my strongest poisons in their most lethal doses into my hands.
The owl screeched and screamed as I approached. "You tried to kill me!" I reminded it with a bitter anger. "Besides, this is a mercy."
I dug my nails in deeply, feeling the cool wave wash down my arms as I fed the poison into the bird. The convulsions and thrashing intensified momentarily before dying down, a red foam frothing at the owl's beak, blood dripping from his nostrils as it's tongue swelled, eyes bulging with an inability to breathe. Within seconds the struggling stopped, it's feet cycling through the air asphyxiation taking hold, then, the bird was finally dead. My friends comforted me as I cried, knowing as well as I did that our understand of death and it's role in Nature didn't make it any easier, or mean we were cruel and heartless in our acceptance of it.
"Did you see anyone?" I asked Rot after I had managed to calm myself.
"No one." he sighed with resignation knowing full well what I had done, and who I had attacked in my perceived self-defense. He gripped my shoulder tightly before flying into the air, leading the way back home where my king awaited an explanation. He was sitting on his throne as he was only moments ago, though now the hall was filled with onlookers, and his favorites were no long draped over him, but standing stoically behind the throne.
I waited for him to speak, to address me, but instead he waved for my case to be presented. "The, the owl is dead, I killed it with a lethal dose of yew poison." I said my voice trembling, he smiled at this.
"And Lord Milori?" he asked, tone light and airy. I wrung my hands together nervously, gaze failing to hold once more.
"He wasn't there anymore, he was gone." I whispered unable to find any further courage. Dusk stood and walked to me again, my eyelids fluttered as I expected another blow in reprimand but none came. The hall deathly quiet as he stared down at me.
"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry!" I cried out at last burying my face into my hands as tears sprung anew. I had damned my people, perhaps even, set into motion the beginnings of war, and these terrible facts made me sick to the core.
"Shh, I know you are!" Dusk whispered, suddenly the warm, caring leader I had moments ago wished for. He embraced me, stroking my hair, humming something sweetly.
"I'm sorry." I repeated disturbed in a way that I had no words for, because I shouldn't have been, I should have been flattered, reveled in this, but there was something wrong, something I knew innately his earlier cruelty conflicting in my mind with the Dusk who presented himself now.
"I know you are." the king said. "You're sorry, sorry, that you couldn't fulfill your duties as a good little Poison Gifted tonight." he went on, voice strangely beguiling.
I pulled away from his embrace to look at him in confusion. "It's alright." he said explaining things in a simplistic manner as though I'd just arrived. "You couldn't fulfill your duties because you were busy entertaining me in my chambers tonight, all night." he smiled, knotting my stomach sharply and sending a hushed gossiping whisper through the crowd.
"But I wasn't-" I tried, backing even further away, only to have my words cut off, and his grip tighten about my quaking form.
"You will though." Dusk promised, wrapping a strong arm about my waist and pulling me forward. "And these fine people can all testify to it." he commented, motioning to the room at large. My heart was hammering steadily, I was dizzy and felt nauseous, my legs giving out sporadically as he led me towards the great yawning doorway. I tried to protest, but he was my king, and he was so much stronger besides.
"Don't!" Rot shouted trying to rush forward as grim looking guards surrounding my friends, and I was being whisked away. Dusk looked back at him and smiled a wicked smile.
"What's the matter?" he mocked, "Are you afraid that the cake won't taste as sweet once all the frosting has been licked away?" he asked meaningfully. A scream of disgust and dread ripped itself from my throat at the thought of what was about to happen, counterpointed by Rot's baritonous howl of fury.
"Please," I begged Dusk my voice thin and frightened as I started to cry. I had never done the act, and although it would seem and honor to bed the king, especially for a first, virginal bedding, I felt sick at the thought of it, his grip on me becoming violent. "I don't want to do this." I said, finally voicing my inner most thoughts as his bed came into view. He nodded acknowledging that I wanted nothing to do with what he had planned.
"Think of it this way," he said. "There are worse ways I could punish you." I felt faint from the sharpness in his tone, but finally had managed to escape him as the doors swung shut. Wailing I beat my fists upon them, my king's cold laugher drawing nearer behind me. Even before hands began exploring my body, I could think of nothing, no punishment, worse than this.